YES!!! Glad you were able to get a flight and get home to see family!
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This was the shockingly difficult part. Flight schedules are still operating under pandemic reductions even though travel restrictions have lifted. It’s been really hard for people to find flights at normal prices - or at all.
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Thrilled that you found a flight! I can only imagine how wonderful being reunited must feel. I hope that your visit is everything you’ve been waiting for and then some.
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Yup. I mean, a mignonette is nice and all, but the base is blah to me.
Tonight my DH made Smitten Kitchen’s crispy chicken cutlets, and I made a salad with pomegranate arils and pomegranate molasses-Dijon vinaigrette, and sauteed garlicky haricots and baby turnips.
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oh my goodness, i’ve never heard oysters described as blah before, even by people who don’t like them! usually it’s a texture thing. Well, to each her own, more in the seas for me! 
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Flat iron steak in my always similar but never identical marinade (light and dark soy sauces, oyster sauce, olive oil, dry vermouth, chili-garlic paste, gochugaru, and scallion) over sautéed spinach. Side of brown butter wheat gnocchi.
To drink: some Rock and Rye (before dinner). A history lesson first. BF went to PA last week and brought me back a bottle of this stuff. He always brings me a bottle of Jacquin something or other whenever he goes away without me because I have such an affinity for America’s oldest distiller (they make great cordials and a surprisingly good and lethal 100 proof “Royale” vodka). Rock and Rye is actually an American standard which dates to Prohibition. People would take their rough moonshine whiskey and/or rye and soak fruits and rock candy inside, hence the name “Rock and Rye”. The goal was to take the edge off this otherwise brutish alcohol. Anyway, Jacquin’s has no such problem. It is very sweet, very smooth, and goes down way too easy! The orange notes are very pleasant. It’s almost like a poor man’s Grand Marnier!
One was enough, being so sweet. I’ve been a good boy lately in drinking my whiskey neat but this needed the ice. With dinner was an additional hefty pour of Bulleit Rye (neat), which has been my favorite sip of late.
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BF made carbonara, following a NYT and a Bon Appetit recipe, with local, Russian River bacon instead of guanciale because that’s what we had. He was bummed that he scrambled the eggs a bit and found it too dry. But I still gobbled it down - bacon & cheese? heck yeah. Drizzled a little olive oil over it - instant improvement. On the side, a wilted spinach salad, sans bacon, since it was already in the pasta.
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A perfect martini, 8oz NY strip cooked sous vide with a simple pan sauce of red wine, thyme, garlic, and butter, creamed spinach from a batch from the freezer, veg, tots, and wine.
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I could not figure out how to get a good shot of this enchilada bake, but it was darn tasty. Corn tortillas, a refried bean/diced tomato layer, a ground beef & onion layer, some shredded mozz, and a quite delicious red enchilada sauce thank you @mariacarmen ! I know. I put in tomatoes. But not in the enchilada sauce at least - in the layer. The sauce was bomb. Alone, it was pretty spicy so I was very light in my application in the bake, only to realize that the tortillas absorbed a ton of the spice and we were left wishing I’d put more in. We drizzled a bit over the top instead.
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yay i’m so glad you liked the sauce!
and that looks like a moonscape, some exotic topography - love it! Looks like it tasted fabulous.
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now i know what i’ll be quaffing later tonight!
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That meal always sticks…
Appetites were shrunk the rest of the day.
Dinner plan (jalfrezie - stir-fried meat, onions, and potatoes) was postponed a day.
Instead we made my dads version of egg salad - boiled egg and potato mashed together with salt, pepper, and butter - with toast.
And a side of (by my request) maggi noodles aka indian ramen (though apparently we didn’t actually have maggi so it was some fancy brand and my maggi fix is still pending).
Vegetable component was a light mixed vegetable soup.
Mom was fasting, so I made her tapioca fritters.
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Is that an Indian dish? Because that combination is my BF’s (Spanish) grandma’s version of “egg salad”. Only difference is they add some olive oil instead of butter. But the rest-- hard boiled eggs and boiled potatoes mashed together-- is the same! Served warm or cold? They eat it warm.
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Excellent cure for a sore throat. Neat.
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I can see that!
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Yesterday I had beans and weenies on toast, french fries and salad.
Today was a chicken noodle soup kind of day. Caesar salad, warm baguette and butter. The jalapeno sausages (weenies) and roast chicken for the soup were from my endless supply of leftovers.
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It does look a bit galactic doesn’t it 
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ooh i just bought some more berbere, do you have a recipe for this?
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